Mutants in Media
by Ishvallan
Summary: Professor Xavier begins a discussion class focusing on movies, tv, and books which depict people with exceptional abilities, adding in the perspective of these people having mutations rather than 'super powers' or 'magic'. His selection for their first class generates exactly the kind of discussion he encourages from his students.
1. Chapter 1

The movie ended, and Professor Xavier clicked the remote to raise the screen before turning back to his class.

"So, who has the first thoughts?"

"That may have been the best thing I've seen...ever" squeeled Kitty.

"I have to agree, that was better than I expected when you said we'd be watching a Disney Princess movie for the first session of this class" added Scott.

"Professor, wasn't this course supposed to be about mutants in media?" Jean asked.

"And it was. A box office smash about a cryokinesic girl born with her abilities in a time where mutations were believed to be witchcraft or sorcery."

"And don't forget her sister's powers too" added Kitty.

The other students, and Professor Xavier as well, stared in confusion at the girl.

"What? That girl could jump like 3 times her height as a child, held a man by a rope who outweighed her, cut a taught rope in 1 swipe, and smashed an easily 100 pound wolf out of the air with a guitar. If that strength doesn't put Colossus to shame for a girl her size, what does? Plus spending 1/3 of the movie in the snow in thin dress clothes made for summer and the rest of the movie in light boots and a single hooded cloak. She even fell in a half frozen river which instantly solidified her dress and she was barely uncomfortable."

Kurt understood what his classmate was getting at."Kitty makes an excellent point. Zeir parents ver so focused on Elsa's abilities, zat zey never noticed Anna having powers as well."

"That is an insight even I hadn't considered when I selected this film for the course. But you are correct. Sometimes people have mutations and people never notice, maybe not even the person who possesses them."

"And are we just going to ignore that Elsa can create intelligent life with her abilities? Like we've met a LOT of Alpha class mutants who couldn't even come CLOSE to that," Evan added

Jean contended against the idea, "I think that was more for comedic value than to be taken any kind of seriously. I don't think anything in this movie was supposed to be interpreted the way we are. I mean, it IS primarily a kid's film."

Rogue replied, "It doesn't matter what it was supposed to be interpreted as. We took this class to look at things in ways others aren't looking at them. To see how the world sees mutants and responds to them. Fear when they don't understand, sometimes love and acceptance when they do. Isn't that right professor?"

"Correct. What mutants do with their abilities does not always sway public or personal opinions. As many of you know, not all parents are accepting of their child being different, and they do not always know how to help their child."

Spyke jumped in with a new point. "And about that. Her parents went about it the entirely wrong way. Why weren't they encouraging her to practice and learn to control it? It obviously wasn't something they could hide or stop from coming out, so why not find constructive outlets? I'm sure there was a metaphor in it for something like puberty, childhood anger, or something else, but it all turns into them sticking to the same solution which hasn't been working for all those years."

"Well, zey didn't have a school to help zem like vee have. How vould zey know how to teach her to use her powers constructively?"

"Why not have the trolls teach her? They knew about magic."

"Yeah, great idea, Kitty. Things might have been better that way. Take a kid from her parents after a traumatic experience to go live among creatures she didn't know existed so that she can learn to better use the powers which almost killed her sister," Rogue tossed off sarcastically.

"That's not exactly different from some of our lives, now is it, Rogue?" Spyke fired back.

"Now children, keep these discussions respectful. Both of you make points very close to our lives. The answers to these situations are as hard in fiction as they are in our reality. Do you remove a child from their home to give them a better chance at safely controlling their powers? Do you try to hide the abilities and attempt to appear normal? Do you look for a way to cure what you consider to be a problem? These are exactly the questions I wanted you to ask yourselves through this course. We can see our own situations by looking at them through the lives of others, or even through fictional stories. I want each of you to write a paper tonight, however long you feel you need, about an important issue facing mutant kind which this movie has raised for you. Class dismissed.

The students packed their things and left while continuing to discuss, quite heatedly, the ideas and events of the movie. A discussion course to open them up to thinking like adults about the situation of their lives which they were only beginning to understand.

As Scott was the last to leave the classroom arguing with Jean about the ethics of Elsa creating an army of snow monsters, Logan passed into the doorway.

"I still think you should have opened with Beauty and the Beast."


	2. Mutants in the Media: Frozen day 2

I own nothing but the dialogue and the plot of this story.

The small group of students gradually filed into class and handed in their papers, lengths varying from 3 pages, to what seemed like a dissertation draft, ironically from Kurt who most often took a minimalist approach to written assignments.

Professor Xavier looked forward to this particular paper, because a great amount of writing when one was not required to often meant a great deal of thought had been put in, if perhaps a bit unrefined and rambling. For high school students, he was happy to see they had at least completed an assignment where they could have argued that 'as long as you feel it needs to be' could mean 'you don't have to submit any work'.

"Good afternoon, students. I see you all found something you felt needed discussing about yesterday's film. Is there anyone who would like to open today's discussion with what issue they found most provoking?"

Kitty Pride thrust her hand in the air with an excitement she did not often show, even for someone who typically was enthusiastic about...everything.

"Yes, Kitty?"

"Anna. I brought it up yesterday and I needed to talk about her. I realize that not everyone agreed she had powers, but the evidence was there. I wrote about the late bloomers and the mutants who go their entire lives not knowing about their abilities. I would have classified Anna as at least a Gamma class mutant. Her abilities are centered around uncharacteristic strength and pain endurance. But her lifestyle as a princess gave her few opportunities to show she had any particular power, or maybe she thought she was normal since she spent so much time isolated from other people due to her sister. The important part I believe to be how some who have the x-gene may go their entire lives not knowing they are not (Kitty made emphatic 'air quotes' gustures) "Normal", especially if they have more noticeable mutants around them."

"A reasonable point, I hope to see some elaboration in your paper. Though a point you also raise which I believe requires mention is that of classification. We have in recent years begun to rank mutants by their-"

Spyke interjected, "Professor, can I take over this bit of the class? It's what I wrote my paper on."

"Certainly, Evan, but do remember to be polite and civil in these sessions, not just with me but with everyone."

"Sorry, professor. But I got really excited by this one. We all know Iceman, but there is something different about her powers because she can create life in snow creatures, and I'm sure the professor would point out that they are sentient creatures. They have their own emotions, memories, personalities, everything. I wrote about how we should classify her. She has almost no training in controlling her powers, but as soon as she stopped fearing them, she created amazing feats of architecture in seconds. We don't have any indicator of the limits of her abilities, so technically that should put her at Omega class, especially with the life creation. But she's just a young woman, its so hard to put her on the same level as beings whose powers could destroy the world. And really, if she can do these things, why can't Iceman? Does that mean he could be an Omega too?"

"Another important point, though a bit of a different direction than I was going to go. Indeed without more context, we cannot know how strong her powers could become, or what she might be willing to do with them in her fear. I believe Mr. Sommers and Miss Grey were discussing about whether she could raise an army of her snow creatures, and whether or not she should. Was this the subject of either of your papers, and would you like to give us a synopsis?"

"Sure, professor," said Scott. "Jean and I agreed that she probably could do it. She didn't seem to have any need to control her ice creatures, she just made them and they were self sustaining as long as they didn't melt. We ran into 2 major ethics problems: should she raise an army for any reason, and do the creatures have any kind of rights? We were dead ended with the 'should' question, because in our current world, militaries seem necessary, but only because of the threat of others' militaries. A standing army made of magic could cause foreign powers to overreact and start a war, but to raise one if ever attacked seemed less problematic."

"The problem I focused on was whether or not it was fair to create these creatures for violence. To impress upon sentient creatures that their purpose is war and especially if they are being sent into some kind of battle to preserve human life. It feels highly wrong to me to send one sentient creature to death to save another. Or instead of war, using them as a labor force. If they don't need anything but cold to survive, and could be repaired from damage by Elsa's magic, it would make many things much easier and safer to do, but how far can you go before it becomes slavery? How much choice would the people of the city be willing to give to these non biological creatures which share equal intelligence?"

"Those are both some fascinating and vital points on the subject. More than anything else, we will constantly be discussing the ethics of using our abilities. Marie, would you like to inform us of your issue of focus?"

Rogue was subtle to answer, "I'd, I'd really rather not professor, it gets really personal since I didn't know we'd be talking about it."

"No need to worry, you can share as much as you feel comfortable with. One of the more important points of this course is to make everyone more comfortable discussing delicate and sometimes very personal problems about our world and our lives. Some may be willing to jump in head first, but some may never be as willing to expose their minds to others and that is their right as people."

"Thank you professor. I can tell everyone that I saw a lot of myself in Elsa, and I'm sure all of you thought of me in the beginning of that movie. Afraid to touch people, afraid of her power, unsure if she could control it. I just compared our lives."

"Thanks for sharing that, Rogue," Kurt said, everyone noticing how quiet he had been despite handing in such a hefty writing, "I know you have a great deal of trouble speaking about your past. I actually wrote about the same thing, although at a bit more length. Growing up with my mutation so exposed to the public, unable to hide, I also had great fears. I identified more with her adult self, after she had been exposed. I don't know that any of you have had to deal with being actually hunted my people afraid that you are some sort of demon. She had her own fears about never fitting in compounded by the fear for her life once people made it clear that they would try to end her life simply because she had a power no one understood. The two of us round out her life fairly well, being feared until they found people willing to love her for who and what she was and to help her not fear her abilities."

"Well, it sounds like you all found something which helped you open up. Feel free to discuss among yourselves about whatever issue you all would like while I read your papers. Please remember to keep everything respectful, seek to understand rather than to respond, and keep on topic of this particular film for now."

The students began quiet discussion with each other. Xavier went straight to Kurt's extensive paper and found a great surprise. The written paper was only about 5 pages. What filled the other 20 pages was a detailed set of 'what if' scenarios of how people could have changed the direction of her life for the better by simply putting their humanity ahead of their fear. It showed incredible potential for a writer of fiction, as well as a deep understanding of how to best deal with such complex issues as the discovery and care of mutations. But as someone passed the open door, Bobby Drake, Xavier made a mental note to have a discussion with him. If Elsa could do it, what were the chances that he might display a similar power?


	3. Chronicle

The movie ended, the room was mostly silent. Kitty was crying quietly, the rest of the students just stared at the screen.

"Professor," Scott broke the silence, "that was much more, I guess 'adult', than the last movie. I guess we all know exactly what points you wanted us to get from that. But is that really what some of our fights are like? All that damage. All that anger and fear. So many people got hurt."

"Why wouldn't Andrew listen?" yelled Kitty. "They were his friends, they just wanted to talk to him and care about him. Why didn't he just let them? All of that happened because he wouldn't listen."

Evan walked over and put his arm around Kitty. "Kitty, we've tried saving people who started to go down that path, all of us have had at least one friend who left us to join the Brotherhood of Mutants, or just went berserk. Sometimes you can't save them. And we've almost all had to fight a friend because of the differences we had. Just look at that kid, what he went through before he got his powers, even after while he was trying to control his temper. Barely any of us had things that bad. Lots of us were hated by other people because we were mutants. They treated him bad just because no one stood up for him and he was an easy target. Stuff like that is really hard to beat in your own head."

"Its true, even wissout people at school knowing zat I am a mutant, I still get treated poorly sometimes simply because I am small. It is an entirely different feeling to be mistreated for what feels like no reason. And I am sure some of our friends can relate to ze pain of losing a parent to sickness, or had someone who abused us. It does sings to you zat we have a lot of trouble getting over."

"Kurt's right," added Rogue, "we've all had to face the arguments from people like Magneto and the Brotherhood. They have that same apex predator mentality and they don't care that they are hurting people. And sometimes its because they were hurt so badly before that they've lost a lot of their ability to care about the well being of others. Sometimes its so they don't have to feel afraid or powerless, ashamed or afraid of what they are."

"Obviously this will be a very difficult film for you to discuss compared to the lightheartedness of our first assignment, but I'm sure you'll all find something that you find passion or paritcular curiosity about. I'll release you all early today so you can get to work or go spend time raising your spirits. Same assignment as before, a paper as long as you feel it needs to be on an issue raised by this film. Class dismissed."

Professor Xavier moved closer to Jean who had stayed behind after class. It didn't take a telepath to know what she needed to talk about.

"Yes, Miss Grey?"

"Professor, where would you classify Andrew?"

"I would at minimum call him a potential Alpha level mutant, if not Omega level considering how powerful he became in a short amount of time. There is no way of knowing if he had any limits the more he practiced, especially when he lost control in the way he did."

"So what about us? We can do everything that he could do, even more since he showed to signs of mind control."

"That is something I and others like us must face every day. We have incredible capacity to harm others, to bend them to our wills, to destroy. And in the right circumstances we do those things, whether intentionally or not. We can only hope that our school and likemindedly peaceful people can help every mutant to maintain their humanity and their nature to care for others. Otherwise we could be an incredible force to recon with. Even considering the damage my old friend Eric causes, he has never been one for senseless harm or damage, nor one to act purely on rage or sadness. It is those who cannot control these things who are the most dangerous, regardless of their abilities."

"Professor, what do we do when someone gets like that? Do we go into their mind and shut them down? Do we do what Matthew did? Do we have to cause them some kind of harm in order to protect others?"

"You see exactly why I wanted my students to take this course? I don't have the answers because there is never an objective answer. We do what is necessary at the time and do our best not to create more harm than we must. It is never easy, and I can tell you now that even I rarely know what to do. I simply try to make the best decisions I can with the situation I am put in."

"That doesn't make me feel any better, if you don't know what to do, how are any of us supposed to know?"

"By learning to think independently, by facing these issues now and deciding how you might handle them if you ever face them, by choosing who you want to be and how you want to act. These are very difficult questions, and they do not have clear answers. That is a great deal of what growing up is, Miss Grey, learning to resolve situations that don't have clear answers. Run along now, it appears you have a lot of thinking to do, and I have another class to prepare for."

As Jean walked away, the professor gave her one last piece of advice. "Jean, I know you are afraid of what you could do if you ever lost control. All of us will always do our best to help you maintain that control, and if we fail we will also do our best to bring you back and minimize the harm. Just as you would do for any of us."


	4. Our Choices

As they did 2 days before, Professor Xavier's advanced Mutants in the Media course walked in and left their papers from the previous day's class in front of him.

The papers all seemed a few pages longer from their first assignment, save for Kurt's given the extensive length of his submission 2 days prior. This was a good sign that they were finding more to discuss, and hopefully thinking more deeply and maturely about the complex issues they were discovering and discussing.

"Good afternoon everyone, I would like to start today's discussion in the same manner as Tuesday. Who would like to speak on the subject of their essay?"

Today people were less excited to talk about what they had written on. After a few moments, Scott broke the silence.

"I guess I'll go first. I thought about what Rogue said about the Brotherhood, their Apex Predator mentality. Some of us, myself included, have abilities so strong that we could even contend with armies let alone people. The Brotherhood and Andrew aren't wrong, we are a new breed in ways that others simply can't challenge. Where we choose to differ is whether or not that gives us any right to claim superiority because of our abilities, or if we should continue to think of ourselves as fellow humans equal in that humanity and deserving of nothing more simply because of our genes. I can't say I came to a definite conclusion because it ends in a choice, not a resolute answer. We decide for ourselves how we choose to view our selves in comparison to people who are not labeled as mutants."

"Yes,' responded the professor, 'our contrast to Eric and his Brotherhood will be a recurring issue in this course and our entire lives, because exactly as you stated it is a choice, a perspective, not a fact or truth. It is not necessarily fair to call ourselves right and them wrong simply because we believe view correct, they are equally correct in that manner. Our choices are what create our impacts on the world and how some of the world will view us. There will be those who saw us as fellow humans who change their mind due to the actions of some mutants, and the consequences of those actions. Conversely some people who held nothing but contempt for mutants who will decide we are not their enemy due to some of our choices not to act as the Brotherhood often does. What we do and how we present ourselves, even as members of a race, a gender, a nationality, a religion or other labels will help others decide what they think of us as individuals and as that label as a whole. We choose how we wish to be viewed, and present ourselves and act in ways to encourage that view, for better or worse. Who would like to discuss next?"

"I'll go, mine isn't quite so heavy." Evan explained his interest. "I saw that Andrew and his friends kept learning new uses for their powers. It seemed to be general telekinesis, but they learned precision, heavy lifting, flying, and I'm not totally convinced that the lightning that killed Steve wasn't affected by Andrew's mood and powers. I started thinking about my own mutations, how I might use things differently. I kind of want to look into using my spikes more like armor than like weapons, something to protect me without necessarily hurting people. Other people I guess might be a bit more flexible, but I think we could be pushing ourselves to be more creative in what we do with what we have."

"Creative is certainly a word for that idea. Part of my interest in teaching this course is to continue receiving ideas from you students which I hadn't considered myself. We continually find new uses for our abilities, new ways to help ourselves or others, and unfortunately new ways to hurt and destroy. But we do exactly the same with our non mutant abilities. How best to apply our strength, our charisma, our knowledge. That is how we grow as people, improve what we know how to do, and seek things to learn how to do. But given the increased danger of some of our powers, we do have to temper that creativity with wisdom and caution."

"And that sounds like my paper professor," Rogue responded. "When we choose not to use our powers, or decide that there are times to hold back from what we could be doing. I know what my powers can do, so I do everything I can not to touch skin so it doesn't hurt people. Sometimes we have to know not to use our abilities, or at least not to give it full power. The more chance we could hurt someone, we SHOULD be making the choice not to do it. I know others make it a question but I want to stand more firm on the side of choosing not to hurt people."

"I'm happy to hear that resolution, we need more people in the world who choose not to hurt others. You understand the grey nature of the issues at times, but choosing non-harm is a noble side to stand on. I would be interested to see a respectful cooperative debate between you and Mr. Daniels about how far we can go compared with how far we should go, and when we should choose those limits. Of course that extra work would be entirely voluntary, but I could award some credit to you if you were to take on a project."

"No thanks professor, I think Evan and I would end up too heated for the good of our friendship arguing over something like that"

"Which is exactly why I suggested it. We will have these arguments with people we call our friends. In feeling this strain, we may be more able to handle it in future conflicts without choosing to throw that friendship aside, or deciding the issue is irreconcilable. I would like to hope you all can learn to find common ground in issues and work towards solutions rather than deciding your positions are too different to continue discussing productively."

"Zat is sort of what we did, professor. Kitty and I spoke for a long vile about how Andrew vas treated before and after he gained his powers, and we worked togezzer to write our papers."

"Yeah, Kurt really was on about how no one knew that those 3 guys even changed. Their powers weren't open for people to see the way some of our mutations can be. They just looked like regular people. We were both really mad that people treat someone like that. We have all gotten treated bad by some people once they find out we have mutations, but it feels worse that he was bullied for no reason at all."

"Exactly as Kitty said. I have mentioned that I have been mistreated for my size, accent, and uzzer sings by people who have no knowledge that my image is not my real face. I have struggled myself wiss whezzer or not to retaliate, especially once I had realized what I was capable of. Maybe if zey knew what I could do, zey might be too afraid of me to cause me problems. But zat is not who I want to be, I just wish Andrew had made zat same choice. I cannot imagine living his life, even his fahzer mistreating him while his muzzer vas in ze hospital."

"Kurt's paper is more about that stuff, how we deal with how others treat us just because we're mutants, and sometimes how they treat others badly just because of some other stupid reason. I wrote about that pressure of not acting out. Knowing what we can do and how hard it can be not to do it. Its part of today's common theme of our choices. We choose not to go that extra step of hurting others who hurt us because we don't want to sink to their level. We say that it makes us the bigger and stronger people, but it sure doesn't feel that way."

"That is a topic even more broad and inclusive than our mutations. I mentioned before that our races, ethnicities, and other factors are all labels, and sometimes people choose that label as a reason to act harmfully towards others. People are often known to commit atrocities simply over a label. These are the same people we choose not to go to war with as the Brotherhood has opted for. There is no difference between mutants and non mutants on this issue, some of us choose to devalue and mistreat others and do not always need a reason to do so. And this is an issue that no number of clever words will make you feel more secure on. Humans are capable of great caring and great blind hatred. And as we keep mentioning, how we behave comes completely down to our individual choices, even when all around us encourage us to choose a side."

All that was left was Jean, and Xavier noticed that she had not submitted a paper. Also that she was wearing the same clothes as yesterday and that she was under significant stress. He dismissed the class and encouraged them to prepare for a much more cheerful movie tomorrow. Surprisingly Spyke and Rogue went off together. Kurt and Kitty did as well, talking about their raised issues. Scott simply placed a hand on Jean's shoulder and left the room himself.

Professor Xavier closed the door behind Scott. Jean was one of his star students, not because of her grades, but because he knew how similar to him she was in both her abilities and her level of understanding of the complexity of these issues. Their discussions were always very deep, very long, and very emotional, much the same as his discussions with Erik Lehnsherr in their youth. Their discussions deserved his full attention.

"Professor, I'm afraid of losing control."

"I understand, Jean. I honestly fear doing the same, I suppose I'm simply more experienced at masking it."


End file.
